Arms Control And The Militarization Of Space

From the front jacket flap: Contrary to widespread expectations in the wake of Sputnik, outer space did not immediately become a new arena for a superpower arms competition. Although the United States and the Soviet Union began to use space extensively for military purposes, both exhibited relatively little interest in the development of space weaponry. By the beginning of the 1980s, however, an arms race in space seemed inevitable. Now both the United States and the Soviet Union have developed the means to disable satellites and are now also considering the deployment of ballistic missile defenses in space. Why were these weapons never extensively developed earlier? What changed in the late 1970s to reverse the predominant trend in the militarization of space? What are the lessons for arms control and for Soviet-American relations in general? Paul Stares addresses these fundamental questions by examining the factors that have shaped United States policy towards the military use of space and in particular the development of antisatellite weapons. States relies heavily on declassified documents found in Presidential libraries and made available under the Freedom of Information Act, and he obtained additional information from a comprehensive series of interview with former members of the U.S. government and armed services. By judicious use of this material, he provides the first detailed account of United States space weapons policy and programs. An invaluable source of information for defense analysts and scholars of international relations, The Militarization of Space is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand present United States military space policy and its implications for the future.

This book, first published in 1982, analyses the prospects of the Cold War superpowers arms race spilling into outer space. A SIPRI-organized symposium in 1981 discussed the consequences of the militarization of outer space, as well as further arms control and disarmament measures. This book presents the findings of 20 eminent scientists, lawyers and diplomats from 12 different countries.

The militarization of space began as a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and grew to enormous proportions during the height of the Cold War. Satellite reconnaissance, navigation and weapons guidance, and electronic intelligence comprise only a few of the efforts taken to militarize and dominate space. Today as the prominence of information technology, computing, and telecommunications advances, so does the concept of space as a battlefield. In The Militarization and Weaponization of Space, Matthew Mowthorpe diligently analyzes the military space policies of the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the People's Republic of China from the Cold War period to the present day. Mowthorpe focuses on the development of the ballistic missile defense and other anti-satellite systems and aptly assesses to what degree space will become armed. This work cogently addresses an issue of increasing urgency to scholars of international politics.

This book puts the widely-held view that 'arms control in space is not possible' to the test and aims to explore how, and under what conditions, arms control could become a reality. Drawing upon international regimes and IR theory, Mutschler examines the success of space weapons and anti-ballistic missiles.